00:00A third round of negotiations are underway in Geneva, aimed at averting a war between Iran and the USA.
00:07U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if Tehran doesn't agree to major modifications to its
00:14nuclear program,
00:15although exactly what Washington is demanding remains unclear.
00:19These Oman-mediated talks coming amid the biggest American military build-up in the Middle East since the U.S.
00:24invasion of Iraq in 2003.
00:28Well, for more on this, I'm joined in the studio now by France 24's Shirley Sitbon. Hi, Shirley.
00:32Hello.
00:33Now, one thing that's striking with these indirect talks mediated by Oman is the fact that the topics discussed
00:39and also the goals the U.S. is hoping to achieve seem to be almost ever-changing.
00:45What are the current sticking points, Shirley?
00:47Well, the current sticking points, the major one, is really what's in these talks, what is being discussed.
00:54Because for the Iranian, it's very clear, only nuclear issues will be discussed, a nuclear program and with a bunch
01:00of red lines.
01:02Meanwhile, the U.S. side says, yes, today indirect talks will be about the nuclear issue,
01:07but later on, the second phase, they're going to hit other targets, starting with the ballistic missiles,
01:14even conventional weapons that Iran has, which the U.S. wants it to cut down.
01:19Let's listen to Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State.
01:24I want everybody to understand that beyond just a nuclear program,
01:28they possess these conventional weapons that are solely designed to attack America
01:33and attack Americans if they so choose to do so.
01:36These things have to be addressed.
01:38The negotiations tomorrow and the talks tomorrow will be largely focused on the nuclear program,
01:43and we hope progress can be made because that's the president's preference,
01:46to make progress on the diplomatic front.
01:48But it's also important to remember that Iran refuses, refuses to talk about the ballistic missiles
01:54to us or to anyone, and that's a big problem.
01:58Now, the question is, perhaps, are the U.S. talking about all the other issues, the ballistic missiles,
02:05also Iran's proxies in the region, saying that it shouldn't back any group in the region?
02:10Well, are these just being pushed so that lines would shift on the nuclear issues
02:15because the U.S. wants to obtain the maximum it can just with negotiations?
02:20And, well, maybe if they're pushing Iran, saying you won't even be able to have ballistic missiles,
02:26well, then Iran will maybe try and accept to move a bit further on the nuclear issue.
02:30The red line for Iran is being able to enrich uranium on its soil.
02:34The Americans are saying, well, if you want to use enriched uranium for power plants or something else,
02:40well, you can just import from abroad enriched uranium.
02:44The Iranians have not agreed to this.
02:46They actually disagreed with this.
02:47Maybe the U.S. is trying to push lines on this, and that's why it's pressing on all the other
02:52issues.
02:52Shirley, we have mentioned Iran's proxies, its allies in the region.
02:57What role have they played in these talks?
03:00Yes, because we always talk about the proxies, and we've seen in the past two years
03:05that those proxies have actually been largely weakened due to U.S. and Israeli strikes in the region
03:11and also the fact that Syria, the Syrian regime, has been toppled.
03:15A new regime is in place, and so Iran is not able to freely move weapons towards Hezbollah and Lebanon.
03:22So what we've seen is basically the Houthis in Yemen saying that they're preparing,
03:26and if Iran is being attacked by the U.S., well, they'll react.
03:29They haven't been very vocal in recent days, but they've said this in recent weeks.
03:33Meanwhile, Hezbollah yesterday said that they will not react militarily if the U.S. strikes Iran,
03:40but in a very limited way.
03:44The words have their importance.
03:46They don't want a massive U.S. intervention which will change the regime in Iran.
03:50They will intervene in that case, but what they want is to keep the regime where it is,
03:55and they're willing to tolerate some kind of U.S. limited operation.
04:01They want a regime to remain in place.
04:03They've been targeted in recent weeks by Israel several times in the south,
04:06and we know that the Lebanese government also wants to take control of all of its territory
04:11and take weapons from Hezbollah.
04:13Shirley Sipbon, thank you.
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